Combat Readiness for Peak Performance
by Daniel D. Elash, Ph.D.
The entire military organization is structured to do what needs to be done in a way that generates and captures the highest possible potential of its members. Ensuring that the groundwork has been laid for harnessing the potential of everyone involved is articulated as combat readiness, a practice that provides the platform that's necessary for success.

On the Pyramid and Business
by Skip Corsini
I have found John Wooden's Pyramid of Success to be of immense value as a personal management tool, as have many of my colleagues, particularly those who don't consider themselves sports fans.

Five Reasons to Employ Economic Value Management
by Eleanor Bloxham
Economic Value Management is a way of managing a business. It is a rigorous and disciplined approach, that can provide immediate gains, better long term strategies, ensure focused execution, and create the alignment within organizations that is critical for success.

Gaining An Edge: Authentic Leadership Lessons from the Estrella Insurance Group
by Daniel D. Elash, Ph.D.
Authentic leadership is leadership that can be trusted; leadership that is, in fact, as it is represented. In the business environment, authentic leadership is a fundamental requirement for generating peak performance.

Eight Things You Can Do to Create a Visionary Enterprise
by Jamie S. Walters
What we can do as we look ahead to creating prosperity in 2003 and beyond? Here are a few steps for beginning your journey.

Rediscovering Your Vision: Do You "Believe in Stuff?"
by Jamie S. Walters
Vision is crucial; it is the capacity to "see the invisible, so that we can do the impossible." This sort of vision is what leads to creativity, innovation, insights, and brilliant solutions to nagging problems. It's what, as Oscar Wilde might have said, lifts us out of the gutters and into the stars. Yet despite all of the talk about "the vision thing" in politics, corporate leadership, and daily life, real vision seems in short supply just when it is in great demand.

QuantumThink® - Living Wisdom From a New World View
by Dianne Collins
Whatever results you are seeking, there is something absolutely fundamental to success, and that is the knowledge of how your own mind and habits of thinking work to create reality. The knowledge and access to universal laws at the edge of discovery today is as essential to mastering results as are the best, brightest and boldest strategies and structures.

The Artist
by Tom Heuerman, Ph.D. with Diane Olson, Ph.D.
The essence of leadership is going first to show the way. Artist leaders proceed into uncertainty with limited information and with faith in their ability to learn and adjust as they proceed. You cannot know. You can only proceed with faith and courage and learn as you travel.

The Strategy of Peer-Based Organizations: Restoring Confidence in Capitalism & Equity in Business
by Jeffrey Nielsen
In any organization where inequality and secrecy dominate the organizational life, lack of trust will be endemic and even good people, eventually seduced by their rank privileges, will abuse power. The key is to know how to design organizations that recognize these two principles in order to create companies of equals where there are no secrets.

Fierce Thoughts - Gruyere & Ground Rules
by Susan Scott
The threat to an organization is not, as one executive complained, changing rules that hold the organization to higher standards. Nor is it the competition. The greatest threat to an organization is conversations gone wrong, gone bad, gone missing. The half truth, the dodge, the lie. This is the recurring problem that needs solving.

Planning as Doing - Accelerating the Business Planning Process
by Brian Ward
A collaborative approach views planning as doing, and aims to compress the cycle of planning, execution and evaluation in a way that recognizes the realities of organizational life.

Nine Fun Things To Do In Developing Your Leadership
by Kenny Moore
Employee surveys increasingly confront executives with three major issues: nobody trusts; employees don't believe in senior management; and workers are too stressed out to care. In my monastic days, we referred to this quandary as a crisis of Faith, Hope and Charity. I believe the problems confronting leaders today are more spiritual than fiscal.

Self Fulfilling Prophecy Triangle
by Paul B. Thornton
My math teacher set high standards and was very demanding. My English teacher was the opposite. He expected very little from his students. For the most part student performance matched teacher expectations. The bottom-line - raise the bar.

Principles and Strategies for the Climb to Alpine Performance
by Gary B. Brumback, Ph.D.
Any company that reaches and sustains Alpine performance is built not only to last, not only to go from good to great, but also to capitivate markets and minds.

Strategic Leadership: The Function and Contribution of CEOs to Success in Modern Business Practice
by Mohammed Miah, Linda K. Gaughan Ph.D. and Jeffrey Wallmann, Ph.D.
Although the duties of Chief Executive Officers are manifold, the bottom line is that their underlying responsibility is to cultivate and develop value for their companies. They may be "the captain of the ship," but unless they keep ship and crew paramount in mind, above the fact that they are captains, they are likely to sink the ship and send the crew jettisoning for safety.

The Self-Designing High-Reliability Organization: Aircraft Carrier Flight Operations at Sea
by Gene I. Rochlin, Todd R. La Porte and Karlene H. Roberts
Recent studies of large, formal organizations that perform complex, inherently hazardous, and highly technical tasks under conditions of tight coupling and severe time pressure have generally concluded that most will fail spectacularly at some point, with attendant human and social costs of great severity. Yet there is a small group of organizations in American society that appears to succeed under trying circumstances, performing daily a number of highly complex technical tasks in which they cannot afford to "fail."

So Is Employee Involvement and Quality of Work Life Really All That New? - The N.O. Nelson and Leclaire Story
by Bob J. Holder and Carl Lossau
Imagine, for a moment, your progressive business vision. Does it have profit sharing? Does labor management collaboration exist? Does it support and assist associates in securing affordable, high quality housing? Is there participatory management? Are employees encouraged to tinker and invent? Does the firm provide and support continuous adult learning? Does it provide high quality child care, primary and secondary education? Are on-site recreation and entertainment provided? Is the firm's facilities pleasing to the eye? Believe or not, these questions were derived from a late 1800's firm. It manufactured plumbing supplies.

CEO as Leader and Coach
by Daniel D. Elash, Ph.D. and James R. Long, Ph.D.
Leading in a way that draws others into the process as thought partners, rather than dependants, optimizes your organization's capabilities, and isn't that what leadership is all about? While it takes practice, these skills can be mastered.

Notes from the Corporate Underground
by Kenny Moore
I'm tired of listening to Tom Peters. I refuse to buy Jack Welch's book. I've grown weary of reading the latest management guru's list of Habits and Business Principles. I've started looking elsewhere for answers to my business needs.

What Keeps Your Business in Business?
by Mark Kimbell
Why does your company exist? How, exactly, does your company make money? And, most importantly, what is your specific contribution to that effort? Knowing the answers to these questions can make the difference between outstanding performers, and average employees.

A Wooden Lid
by Susan Scott
If your instinct suggests that essential bits and pieces of reality are being edited out of your conversations with people essential to your organizations' success, you may be the problem. The questions is, "How can I become the kind of person to whom people will speak the truth?"

Building Partner-Friendly Environments at Work
by James R. Long, Ph.D. and Daniel D. Elash, Ph.D.
Collaborative relationships create the necessary connections inside an organization needed to act effectively upon its strategic intent. The presence of trust in thought partnerships is an important catalyst in the development of a culture of trust.

You Say You Want a Revolution?
by Stephanie Cirihal
That's what it will take to reverse the current employee development wasteland that many corporations have become.

Producing a Blockbuster
by Steve Coats
I have recently heard a number of executives comment about the need for some real breakthroughs in their businesses. For all their banter about how desperately they want blockbusters, much of the effort in their organizations remains directed on incremental, smaller scale improvements.

What Makes Leadership Work?
by Robert Dunham
There is already a mass of current interpretations about leadership and management. Yet there is a blind spot in this mainstream common sense. We need a generative foundation for leadership and management.

Tough Times Demand Resilient Leaders
by Eileen McDargh
Whether you're leading a Fortune 100 company, a small department, or an enterprise of one, now is the time to hone your resiliency skills. Key resilient strengths are found in using HOPE as an acronym.

Creating Peer-Based Organizations
by Jeffrey Nielsen
When you talk about organizations, there are two principles that you can take to the bank. One, genuine communication will only occur between equals; and two, secrecy always breeds corruption and abuse of power.

Developing Russian Far East Eco-Tourism
by Bob J. Holder
While this article focuses on Russian Far East Eco-tourism development, its contents can be applied beyond this industry and region. First, its content can be of value to business and government leaders and associations for improving community and economic development. Second, its ideas and methods can be applied to tourism in general. Finally, it is of value to businesspeople who are interested in strategic planning, mass customization, the Experience Economy and its offerings, reducing customer sacrifice and developing alliance and network organizations.

The New Accountability
by Brian Ward
The new accountability reflects the new reality...a world that is changing rapidly, where information moves at lightning speed, where shared knowledge and wisdom are the true drivers of success, and where cause and effect is not what we think it is.

Leadership by Devil's Advocate
by Ed Konczal
Authentic leadership is open to different and even opposing viewpoints. Authentic leaders know that they do not know everything and routinely seek out people who will tell them the truth.

Using Thought Partnerships to Build Your Brand
by Daniel D. Elash, PhD. and James R. Long, Ph.D.
Your brand is the identity of your enterprise. Ideally, your brand defines the value proposition offering to your customers. When consumers use your product or service, it's your identity that becomes linked with their positive or negative experience. This paper suggests that thought partnerships are the foundation that forms the organizational capability for achieving brand promise.

Got Respect? Why Companies Should Care
by John Jessen
Respect is indeed earned, but it helps greatly to know what drives respect, as it does to know what drives loyalty or purchase behavior.

A View from the Flip Side
by Lori Richmond
Front-line level employees with any company tend to be in a very good position to observe the good behaviors and the not-so-good behaviors of their leaders. Consider this to be a view from the flip side!

Shadowing For Leadership Development - Part 1
by Daniel D. Elash, Ph.D. and James R. Long, Ph.D.
Thought partnerships become the medium within organizations that facilitate effective collaboration, timely sharing of knowledge, and innovation. One leadership development technique that exemplifies thought partnering is a process we call "shadowing."

Shadowing For Leadership Development - Part 2 - Role Variations within the Shadowing Process
by Daniel D. Elash, Ph.D. and James R. Long, Ph.D.
Shadowing is a technique in which a person wishing to learn a skill (student) accompanies, observes and collaborates with another (mentor), while that person is employing their expertise on a value-producing assignment. Here we will explore the role variations within the shadowing process and provide examples of the shadowing leadership development technique.

Shadowing For Leadership Development - Part 3 - The Mentoring Dialogue and Facilitating the Shadowing Process
by Daniel D. Elash, Ph.D. and James R. Long, Ph.D.
Shadowing is a technique in which a person wishing to learn a skill (student) accompanies, observes and collaborates with another (mentor), while that person is employing their expertise on a value-producing assignment. Here we will explore the key elements of the mentoring dialogue and the opportunities to facilitate the shadowing process.

The Quantum Advantage - A Practical Leadership Guide for Middle Managers - Part 1
by Mark B. Stewart
Current organizational structures not only fail to bring out the best in people, but they also tend to hinder individuals from working at their full potential. In order to reach our full potential, we must build leadership models based on the principles and the scientific revelations of our time.

The Quantum Advantage - A Practical Leadership Guide for Middle Managers - Part 2
by Mark B. Stewart
Is it really possible to create a work setting where people can truly thrive? And does it make sense to do so?

The Quantum Advantage - A Practical Leadership Guide for Middle Managers - Part 3
by Mark B. Stewart
Let's examine some very specific techniques for building the quantum organization, including management tools and processes that you can start using today.

The Quantum Advantage - A Practical Leadership Guide for Middle Managers - Part 4
by Mark B. Stewart
Our experiment into the Quantum Organization was in its infancy; just beginning to take some shape. Nevertheless, already we knew that the principles and doctrines of the Quantum Organization were real and true.

The Quantum Advantage - A Practical Leadership Guide for Middle Managers - Part 5
by Mark B. Stewart
A turning point: we must invest in people! We all have the opportunity to achieve greatness even if it is only in the eyes of a few, even if we only change the life of the one.

The Quantum Advantage - A Practical Leadership Guide for Middle Managers - Part 6
by Mark B. Stewart
A transformation: delivering a return on investment. How do we know the Quantum Organization is better? How do we satisfy the demand by senior management for a clear set of steps to a satisfactory return on investment?

Eleven Easy Rules to Quality Leadership: Machiavelli's Undiscovered Manuscript
by Lawrence E. Wharton
Certainly we have had more than our share of leadership admonitions from consultant pronouncements, books, articles, workshops, etc. But what we don't have is what it takes to be a REAL leader, the unvarnished truth.

CEO's Speak On Leadership - Authenticity
by Marie J. Kane
Our series on the qualities of leadership continues with an exploration of authenticity. To grow as leaders, we must be constantly growing ourselves.

Thought Partnerships: Creating Value Through Generative Thinking
by Daniel D. Elash, Ph.D. and James R. Long, Ph.D.
Without a deep, cogent, and abiding understanding of your organization and the unique context in which you find yourself, the application of someone else's key principles is insufficient. It isn't gathering information that's counterproductive. It's allowing the experts to think for you rather than to think with you that's the problem.

The Big Three Management Styles
by Paul B. Thornton
I believe there are three basic styles - directing, discussing and delegating. The appropriate style provides the right amount of structure and support for each situation. Each style is unique in terms of how managers communicate, set goals, make decisions, monitor progress and recognize good performance.

Adventuring in the Changing Realities of Messy Desks and Chaos
by Bob J. Holder
Stability and order were the essence of good management in the relatively static environments of the past. Unfortunately, the real story today is one of chaos and bloopers rather than the fantasy of a neat and tidy desk world.

The Giving of Courage: The First Duty of The CEO
by Tom FitzGerald
Investing in the courage of your people brings extraordinary, even unwarranted, corporate results. And, in monetary terms it is free; it costs only the will to do it. And the remarkable thing is, you don't need to have courage yourself to create it.

Quality Entertainment: Morphing Work and Playstations
by Eric Nielsen
How an ISO 9002, ISO 14001 and QS 9000 certified Silicon Valley silicon wafer manufacturer uses a martial arts punching dummy, electronic dart board, slot machine and Mardi Gras masks to keep manufacturing humming while at the same time achieving record manufacturing yield and quality goals.

Leadership And Stories
by Ed Konczal
Nothing serves a leader better than a knack for narrative. Stories anoint role models, impart values, and show how to execute indescribably complex tasks.

The Foundation: Mission, Vision and Values
by Paul B. Thornton
What's our mission? Vision? Values? Leaders find simple, clear and compelling answers to these questions. The answers have a profound influence on what employees think, say and do. These three building blocks are vital to establishing an effective organization.

Why Good Management Ideas Fail - The Neglected Power of Organizational Culture
by William E. Schneider, Ph.D.
Why do some management ideas take root and remain viable and others wither and die?  This article offers four fundamental reasons centering on organizational culture.

A Quantitative Model of the Amplification of Power Through Order and Implications for Defense Against Hijackings
by Eugen Tarnow, Ph.D.
A simple quantitative model of how the power of a leader over a group is amplified when the group is ordered implies that a small well-informed minority can easily govern an ordered majority. It also suggests the importance of a new concept, "group defense" that may be helpful in preventing fatal hijackings.

Naval Force in the New Century
by Joseph A. Gattuso, Jr., and Lori J. Tanner
Behold the dichotomy of the age: a world that lives and moves at the speed of light finds its survival dependent upon solutions that span decades. Only a force that is proficient in every dimension of society can bear upon the world’s moral horizons.

Heroes, Villains and Terrorists of the Business World
by Gregory P. Smith
In the opening scene of the movie Gladiator, Maximus rallies his soldiers with the words, “What we do in life echoes in eternity!” Well, the same is true in the workplace. Your employees will remember how they were treated during this highly emotional time.

Getting The Breakthrough to World Class Performance
by Paul J. O'Neill
New knowledge can be quickly injected into a company and effectively utilised providing there is power behind the determination to be world class, and this means the personal involvement of the CEO.

Leadership at 'Ground Zero'
by Anne Riches
Leadership - that almost impossible to define concept. Yet it remains true that you know it when you see it and you know when it's not there. Let's look at some of the characteristics that Giuliani has shown.

The Leader of the Year - Leading on the Front Lines!
Rudolph Giuliani
Leading "on the front lines" has no better example in action than Rudy Giuliani in a time of unfathomable crisis. There was no plan or script that could prepare anyone for the inconceivable challenge at hand. There was no precedent. All Mr. Giuliani could do was be Rudy Giuliani - and be the leader.

The Three Cs of Leadership
by Paul B. Thornton
The Army's motto - "Be All That You Can Be" is both simple and powerful. Leaders help people achieve that goal. In essence, leaders do three things: they challenge people; they build people's confidence; and they coach people.

How ‘Valuable’ Are Your Values …?
by Anne Riches
How do we attract the right people for the right jobs at the right time? But what about the flipside? What are we doing to make sure our existing key people and best performers don’t leave?

The Five Key Facets of Quality Leadership
by Brian Ward
What are the key facets of quality leadership? Here are the ones that we have distilled from our research and practice ... we call it the FACET Leadership Coaching Model™.

Local Leadership, Local Choice
by John Warner
Good leadership - and leadership for the good of the people and organizations is vitally important in the world today. So is the need for effective leaders whether in local government or regional development boards.

The Six Roles of a Modern Manager/Leader (Ya Gotta Get 'em to Wanna)
by Ian Cook
Leadership now is really the practice of influencing. Concentrate on six roles that, together, earn you the right to call yourself a "modern leader".

Leadership By Not Getting In The Way
by Ed Konczal
If you are to improve as a leader, sometimes you just have to get out of the way - from a forthcoming e-book - Simple Stories For Leadership Insights.

Accountability in Knowledge-Based Organizations
by Bruce Klatt and Shaun Murphy
We've stopped complaining about the lack of accountability and provided a tool to make it understandable, negotiable, and accessible.

Circumventing The Glass Ceiling: Women Entrepreneurs & Other Emerging Trends
by Stacey van Hooven
Male-led organizations will benefit from adopting structures and strategies similar to those now being created by women entrepreneurs that are sensitive to their employees ever-developing sense of how to make their careers and personal lives more compatible.

Don't Shrink - RETHINK!
by Eileen McDargh, CSP, CPAE
Now is the time to pull together and think creatively about our businesses. Consider brainstorming some of these questions for improvement and enrichment.

Eight Virtues of Gladiator Leadership
by Gregory P. Smith
Remember the heart-pounding, soul-stirring message of last year’s critically acclaimed movie Gladiator? Now, consider the leadership in your own company. Any gladiators in the ranks? Are you a gladiator?

Who Says That Organization Theory is Boring?
by Kai-Lit Phua
Love it or loath it, feminist, radical and other unorthodox versions of organization theory are never dry and boring. Here is a brief introduction to alternative organization theory.

The Myth of the Extinct Hierarchy: Why Leadership Training Fails
by Joe DiSabatino and Janet Oliver
Organizations are continually faced with "communication" and management problems. Until the underlying tension between the hierarchical structure and empowerment trends is openly addressed, leadership development initiatives will continue to miss the mark.

Corporate Decisiveness
by Tom FitzGerald
One attribute stands out above all others as having the greatest effect on success and profitability, and this attribute is a key component of most of the others.

What’s REALLY Getting Reinforced?
by Lawrence E. Wharton
From a vantage point of reinforcement, leaders have much greater leverage in elevating their units or organization to profound levels of performance.

The Warning Signs of Corporate Trouble
by Tom FitzGerald
Early Warning Signs and Leading Performance Drivers enable management to directly assess corporate risk and determine what should be done.

Self Limiting Learning Disabilities
by Rick Sidorowicz
It's no accident that most organizations are poor learners - from The Fifth Discipline by Peter Senge.

How To Get Beyond Poor Lip Service
by Jim Clemmer
People in organizations act like their leaders despite all attempts to train and develop them otherwise.

Who Are You? and What Do You Want?
by Jim Clemmer
Go beyond doing your "leadership thing" with the people on your team doing their "commitment thing."

You're Getting the Behaviour You Designed
by Jim Clemmer
If you're not happy with the behaviour of people on your team, take a closer look at the organization structure.

Are You a Green Thumb Leader?
by Eileen McDargh
What I must do to get my garden back in shape and to make it world class, is exactly what every leader must do: seed, feed, and weed.

Managing for Eternity - How to Live Long and Prosper
by Tanya Sammut Bonnici
Is longevity a sign of optimal performance or is it merely an indication of endurance in a sub-optimal state? Recent studies aim to unfold the mysterious ingredients of survival.

Is Your Company Still Practicing The Dilbert Principle?
by Henry K.
The Dilbert Principle is still alive and well in many organizations.

Intangible Assets are Key to Shareholder Value
by Keith B. Stein
Growing in an evolutionary marketplace -  have you taken steps to maximize your intellectual capital?

You Can’t Get There From Here: Why “Structural” Changes Won’t Cut It
by Lawrence E. Wharton
The key to increasing effectiveness is addressing the underlying behavior that is at the core, and only then adding “structural” elements to reinforce the improvement.

Lessons in Leadership
by Rick Sidorowicz
Attributes of Those Who "Made" the 10th Grade History Textbook and more of the insights of Tom Peters.

The Emerging Workplace
by A. V.  Srinivasan
Can we develop enterprises that are vibrant and productive, a place to which people would want to come to work contributing to the organization, to themselves and to the communities in which they live?

Back to the Beginning - Core Values
by Rick Sidorowicz
Core ideology, core values, core purpose, "big hairy audacious goals" and envisioned future - from an HBR feature by James Collins and Jerry Porras.

The Paradox of Our Times
by Rick Sidorowicz
The more turbulent the times, the more complex the world, the more paradoxes there are.

After the Merger
by Mark J. Schneiderman
The closing is just the beginning - Ten critical steps for the CEO to drive the early stages of integration and make it work.

The Myth of the Consensual Culture
by Antonieta Costa
Do we still think about cultures as areas of consensus? Perhaps the reality is that cultures are very controversial arenas - and that is very natural.

The Obsolescence of the Power Paradigm Within the Brotherhoods of The Holy Spirit
by Antonieta Costa
Where no one has authority to establish the "truth" - English version and synopsis of a Ph.D. thesis.

Vision - Paradox, Metaphors, and Focus!
by Rick Sidorowicz
The effective vision ‘lives’ in the paradox to provide leadership and guide action to achieve the desired results and cope with the unknown.

Radical Resolutions
by Rick Sidorowicz
Make the leap into the future - to a leaner, meaner, and radically more responsive business.

Not So Radical Resolutions
by Rick Sidorowicz
Same deal, a little less radical but in the same vein. Get the edge! Make the leap!

The Hunter Mentality
by Rick Sidorowicz
The model of the nomadic hunting band offers insights on how we can organize to survive and thrive in a threatening context.

Why Real Leaders Pump Gas
by Jim Clemmer
In improving organization performance, as in golf, it's the follow-through that makes the difference.

Life Beyond the Sigmoid Curve
by Rick Sidorowicz
Create the next wave - and deal with the compression of time, an accelerated wave frequency and the paradox of change.

A Journey Through Paradox
by Mike Cox
We may become wiser by realizing that issues can be coped with in different and creative ways.

Leadership - How Would Your Employees Rate You?
by T. M. Georges
One strategy to improve your effectiveness as a leader might be to seek guidance from those being led.

Managing By Values
by Dr. Ken Blanchard
The characteristics of a fortunate 500 company.

Related Topics: Creative Leadership II | Creative Leadership III

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